More of my classroom

Now that my classroom is starting to get things up on the walls, it looks pretty different!
Our classroom promise with our circle of friends and student materials (folders, pencils, paper, etc).
Our calendar area and math resources.

Our classroom library and reading/writing resources.

My desk area and the chart we use at the carpet.

Long Beach

Scott and I joined my family at Long Beach for the End of the World Classic Car Show. It was the first rod run Scott had ever been to and he LOVED it! We stayed at Cape Disappointment State Park...but sadly, we only made it to the beach for about 10 minutes total. Scott had never been to Long Beach before, so I showed him around. A trip to Long Beach wouldn't be complete without seeing Jake the Alligator Man! :)


On our drive home, we stopped at the Astoria Column. Sadly it was closed for repairs, so we couldn't climb to the top...but we still enjoyed the beautiful view of Astoria and the bridge!

Climbing Wind Mountain!

The first weekend in September, Scott, his dad (Steve), and I hiked Wind Mountain in the gorge. Scott and I had to take many breaks along the way, and thought we might not make it..but we made it to the top and the view was beautiful!

My Classroom!

My new classroom at Endeavour Elementary!
Room 141

Part of our classroom library
The front of the classroom

I'll have to take more pictures now that we're getting settled into our room...it looks much different with student work on the wall!

Wedding Season!

Scott and I started off at a friend from high school's wedding in Vancouver...Mallory and Jared!

Two weeks later we went to my friends, Anna and Tanner's, wedding in Seattle.

Elementary Education friends!

I was so lucky to take part in these beautiful days with such amazing friends!

Summer Adventures!

MARINERS GAMES
Scott and I attended around 6 baseball games over the summer! We went with friends and on our own...every time was so fun!At the July 4th game...we got free season tickets from a friend, so we were in the front row of the 300 level! :)
WHIDBEY ISLAND
After the 4th of July, Scott and I took a trip to Whidbey Island to visit my family at their beach house.
Scott held a baby crab for the first time...he was so cute. :)
ALKI ADVENTURES
Scott and I spent a few evenings over the summer at Alki. It is such a beautiful place to walk along the beach, watch the sunset, and eat yummy food! :)
FRIDAY HARBOR
Scott, his dad, Steve, and I took a ferry to Friday Harbor for the day. It was a beautiful day and we had many fun adventures looking at boats and exploring the town of Friday Harbor.
OCEAN SHORES
Our last big harrah of summer was a trip to the beach with all our friends.
We drove the "long way" around the peninsula and stopped at this huge cedar tree along the way!
Such an amazing summer!

My 23rd Birthday! :)

Wow, I haven't updated in awhile, so here goes! :)

For my birthday, Scott took me to the Melting Pot! Sarah was in town for the day, so she joined us for drinks and cheese fondu so we could celebrate our birthdays together (hers is the day before mine!).
My amazing friends in Seattle threw me a surprise party and Trudi made me the cutest teacher cake ever!

Memorial Day Weekend

I spent Memorial Day Weekend in Seattle with Scott. We had a great time! On Friday we went to Leavenworth for the day and even though it rained the whole time we still had fun looking through all the little shops. We found these funny hats at one shop (hopefully we don't get head lice from trying them on! eek!):
We also found these silly hamburger and hot dog hats:

On Saturday we went to the Woodland Park Zoo. It's something we've both wanted to do for awhile and when it ended up being such a beautiful day we decided it was a perfect day to go! It is such a beautiful zoo and we saw some amazing animals!
Sunday we headed up to Bellingham to visit friends and partake in the annual Ski to Sea festival. In my four years in Bellingham I had never checked out this festival and I was so glad to finally be able to go. It was another amazing and beautiful day which made the festival just that much more fun. There was also a car show at Boulevard Park which Scott thoroughly enjoyed! On our drive home we took Chuckanut Dr and stopped at Larrabee Park to watch the sunset...it was gorgeous.


On Monday we met up with our friends Megan and Josh for lunch and some shopping at IKEA! It was such a fun and relaxing day...perfect for the end of our long weekend. :)

My New Job!

A couple weeks ago I got offered a job in the Evergreen School District! It was a 2nd grade position at a brand new school that will be opening in the fall, so of course, I accepted! The school is called Endeavour and it will be a great experience opening a new school with a great new staff....a lot more work, especially as a first year teacher, but it will be fun! I'm also excited that it will be in 2nd grade...it's my favorite grade and it'll be nice to use what I learned in my internship. While I'm really excited for this new adventure I'm also sad that I won't be up in the Seattle area with Scott and my friends...maybe next year.

Usborne Kick Off Show! :)

I will be having my first Usborne Book show on March 9th at 2pm. Everyone is invited to attend and bring friends...the more the merrier! :) Feel free to look at the books online with my online catalog. From this website you can also buy books through me, although you won't get in on the good deals from a home show. If you are interested in purchasing books for children in your life and are unable to attend the show, give me a call or e-mail me with the books you'd like and I'll order them! The books are so fun and such wonderful, quality books! I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do! :)

I am a business woman! :)

As many of you know, substitute teaching is not a highly demanding job...I have MUCH more free time than when I was student teaching, so I've been trying to figure out my get rich plan and a hobby to occupy my free time. I looked into a few home businesses that operate on the party plan and decided to try Usborne Books. This will help me earn some travel money and free books for my future classroom! :) After I get all of my materials I can start having book shows...wanna host a show? :) And you can also buy books from my website: www.ubah.com/U2101. I'm so excited! I'll keep you updated on shows, etc...(does anyone actually read my blog?).

Taiwanese Kids!

Teaching the Taiwanese kids has been an amazing experience so far. As their teacher I coordinate classroom visits so that they may participate in American school lessons and activities. I also create my own lessons to fill in empty spaces in the day. Today we went to Starbucks to experience a popular American shop. Starbucks was very generous and gave all the students a tall hot chocolate and a piece of coffee cake! The students loved it, especially when they found out that Starbucks started in Washington! :)

There are 11 Taiwanese kids and 3 Teacher's Assistants. Today they also brought with them a Taiwanese reporter who took pictures and asked a lot of questions for the children's section of their Taiwanese newspaper! :)


In the afternoon, after school, the Taiwanese students lead a Chinese Culture Camp for the students at Illahee. They teach them Ocarina (a type of instrument, kind of like a flute), Kong Fu, Chinese Yo-yo, Aboriginal dance, Erhu (Chinese violin), Chinese flute, and Chinese drums. It is amazing to see these kids teach the Illahee students. I supervise the Ocarina, so today I bought one from the Taiwanese students so I could learn to play too!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the Ocarina has 4 holes in the front and 2 in the back. You wear it around your neck and blow into the top (the blue area).

A get rich plan?

I've decided I need a quick, get rich plan....this plan must not involve too much work or include weekends (cause I want to be able to visit friends!). I am not sure if this kind job even exists...but I need money for all of the adventures coming up that I want to take part in! :)
There are many trips in discussion: a weekend beach trip, a spring break Vegas trip, a trip to Florida to see the space shuttle launch, etc. Sadly, these all cost money. :(

Here are my ideas so far:
-Write a children's book (but what do I really know about writing a book?!)
-Get a night job (could involve weekends and they may not like the idea of me taking time off to travel)
-Tutor students (I'd have to find some first...)
-Clean houses (but who wants their house cleaned at night, and cleaning other people's dirt is no fun...)
-Make something to sell (not sure what i could make that people would buy, but its an idea!)
-Flip houses (however, this would first involve me having enough money to buy a house and remodel it...)
-"professional" gambler (this could also turn into a get even poorer plan though!)
-sell pampered chef, mary kay, or one of those other types of items (this would require other people to buy stuff...would you? :)

Sarah also suggested standing on a street corner. As she pointed out, this "job" would allow me to pick my own hours, would pay well, and would allow me to get in some much needed exercise...haha, we'll call this plan b for now... :)

As you can see my get rich plans so far are lousy....if you have any get rich plans for me, I would love to hear them! ;)

Happy New Year!

New Years was amazing this year! I got to spend it with some of my closest high school friends in Seattle. We had a view of the Space Needle from where we were at, so we were able to watch the fireworks at midnight. The was great food, yummy drinks and fun people to hang out with....

I absolutely love these girls...

All the girls. We found a convenient location for our shot glasses and used our shot glass drink holders as pretty, princess like hats! :)

Our first walk in the New Year...we're being healthy already! :)

My New Years Resolutions: (Maybe I'll be more likely to keep them if they are in print)
-Be healthier (eat better, exercise more, take better care of my body)
-Make more time to visit friends (in Seattle, Bellingham, etc.) I love my friends so much and don't see them nearly as much as I would like to!

Good luck with your New Years Resolutions!

Winter Break

It has been so much fun seeing friends that I haven't seen in forever since everyone is in town for the holidays! One night we went bowling at Big Al's. I had never been to the bowling side before and it was so much fun! They even have it set up so that at each lane you can have bumpers pop up on your turn...I did so much better than usual! :)

Christmas with the Rods!

We celebrated Christmas a little early this year because my mom had to work on Christmas Day and we wanted to celebrate with family. We headed up to Stanwood and celebrated with the whole family...we had so much fun! Little Craig is such a fun little guy to watch...he is hilarious! We had a ton of fun hiding under the table and playing "where is Craig?".

Craig and Scott having a little pre-dinner cracker snack...they were delicious! :)


After dinner we opened presents...little Craig couldn't quite reach his hand to the bottom of this bag, so he found a different way to the bottom of the bag! :)

The cousins (minus Greg, Tami, Lauren, and Holly who couldn't make it over from Idaho).